East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. (Cheryl Waity/Pioneer Press)

Cheryl WaityPioneer Press

Red fliers warning of the addictive nature of e-cigarettes and vaping lined the walls of the front hallway of East Leyden High School last week. They were posted by the students of Students Against Destructive Decisions.

Leyden District 212 is waging an information campaign against vaping.

“A lot of students have the mentality it’s not harmful,” said Jackie Quinones, a West Leyden senior and student representative on the school board. But according to Quinones, the practice is starting to affect students who aren’t vaping, with bathrooms being locked during passing periods to deter those who vape from using the facilities.

Quinones raised the concern during the Nov. 1 board of education meeting to ask if any more educational information could be passed on to students who use e-cigarettes.

Superintendent Nick Polyak called vaping “the number one issue the deans have been fighting” and detailed the steps the district has taken to prevent students from trying out vaping. There was a table featured at parent night that featured information on the potential effects of the practice.

The district met with local police departments to discuss the issue as well as strategies for curbing use. Deans have been attending health classes to also issue warnings about the negative health effects and consequences of vaping on school property.

Officials said West Leyden closed bathrooms during passing periods to curb use, and East Leyden has posted security guards just outside of propped-open bathroom doors to deter students from vaping while in the bathrooms.

“It’s really gotten pretty out of hand,” said Polyak.

The problem isn’t new for Leyden. The district started battling vaping in the last school year, but according to Polyak it has started to increase this year.

Polyak also stated that there are now vape detectors available, but they cost more than $1,000 and cover about a 10-foot by 10-foot radius, meaning each bathroom in the school would require two of them. He said they are waiting on other districts to test them out before pursuing the product.

School board President Gregory Ignoffo has pointed out that the addictive nature of e-cigarettes probably make it so that students are more willing to find a way to vape during school hours.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the nicotine in vapes can harm the developing adolescent brain, which develops until the mid-20s and that nicotine at that time of brain development can harm the parts that control attention, learning, mood and impulse control.

Polyak stated that there are two levels of punishment for vaping on a Leyden campus.

If the student is caught vaping a nicotine oil, then it is treated as though a student had been smoking on campus. For the first offense, that means a student is assigned one day at the behavior improvement center, for the second it is two days of the center, and so on.

If a student is caught vaping THC oil, it is treated as if the student had been smoking marijuana on campus. That punishment could result in an out-of-school suspension, a parent conference, reference to student services and a final warning. Possession of drugs, which would include THC oil, could also result in expulsion.

Having vape equipment on campus also has consequences, but Polyak stated that small vape pens tend to look like USB drives, something a student would likely have and can be hard to pick out.

Polyak said he would look into the bathroom problem specifically for Quinones and talk to administrators to make sure a more even distribution of bathrooms throughout the building stayed open. He added, “hopefully, it has peaked.”